The market for personal portable electronic devices, for example, cell phones, laptop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital cameras, and music playback devices (MP3), is very competitive. Manufacturers, distributors, service providers, and third party providers have all attempted to find features that appeal to the consumer. For example, service providers are continually looking to improve cell phone reception and access to the internet for down loading of information, music, and the like. Third party providers are constantly searching for accessories that function well with the manufacture's product. Manufacturers are constantly improving their product with each model in the hopes it will appeal to the consumer more than a competitor's product. Many times these manufacturer's improvements do not relate directly to the functionality of the product.
The look and feel of personal portable electronics devices is now a key product differentiator and one of the most significant reasons that consumers choose specific models. From a business standpoint, outstanding designs (form and appearance) may increase market share and margin.
Consumers are enamored with customizable features, e.g., cell phone ring tones, on portable electronic devices. These features reflect personal style. Consumers select them for some of the same reasons that they select clothing styles, clothing colors, and fashion accessories. These two worlds have not merged because consumers have multiple sets of clothing and generally only one personal electronic device (perhaps of each type), and this device has a single defined color, texture, or shape. In short, consumers have a very limited ability to match colors and patterns of personal electronic devices to their clothing, their accessories, their car, or their mood. Plastic snap-on covers for devices such as cell phones and MP3 players can be purchased in pre-defined patterns and colors. These snap-on covers are quite popular, and yet they provide a limited customization capability.
There is clearly a need for a better solution: a need for a technology that will allow consumers to easily and conveniently match the color and pattern of their portable electronics device to both their moods and wearable items without depleting power from their portable electronics device.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a portable electronics device having a thin, color- and/or pattern-customizable housing surface wherein the color and/or pattern can be configured without depleting power from the portable electronics device. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.